Process of preserving powder of konjac to be used for manufacturing paste or sizing material



Patented Feb. 23, 192%.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

KATSUNAGA TAMANAI-IA, OF TOYOTAMA-GUN, TOKYO-EU, JAPAN.

PROCESS OF PRESERVINQ POWDER OF KONJAG TO BE USED FOR MANUFACTURING PASTE OR SIZING MATERIAL.

No Drawing.

terial, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a process of pre serving powder of konyac to be used for the manufacture of paste or sizing material by treating konjac powder with an acid or acidulent substance or mixing the same therewith; and the object thereof is to re move the bad odor inherent in konjac powder to preserve the powder and to obtain an excellent sizing or cementing material.

Konjac powder, as is generally known, is powdered bulbs of i lmorphophallus lzony'ac belonging to the family of Amoeac, and its chief component is mannan. When knead ed with water, the grains gradually swell and become a pasty substance, and when it meets alkali, it coagulates. It is dii'lerent in its chemical and physical properties from starch. This konj ac powder mixed with wa ter forms an excellent sizing material used in textile industry, &c., but has an unpleasant odor; and when it is preserved, this odor becomes stronger and stronger. Yloreover, it loses its adhesive property, until when kneaded with water the powder presents a sandlike appearance and does not form a paste. I have discovered that this is due to albuininous matters intermingled therein and the action of the basic compounds produced by the decomposition of the albuminous matters or basic substances coming from outside, and I have discovered that the above drawbacks can be obviated, by treating the powder with an acid or acidulent substance.

Application filed October 12, 1923.

Serial No. 668,166.

To carry out my invention into practice there will be many methods; for example, 100 parts of konj ac powder may be intimately mixed with ten parts of powder of boric acid, or to 100 parts of konjac powder, live parts of salicylic acid may be mixed; or in a closed room lronjac powder may be exposed for about one hour to sulphurous acid gas, hydrochloric acid gas or the like, introduced thereinto.

Moreover in this invention, instead of an acid, sodium bisulphate or any other acid salt may be utilized.

In this invention the acid or acidulent sub stance causes in the intermingled albuminous materials peptization which directly stops the decomposition of the materials, and even ii more or less albuminous matters start to decompose and form ammonia or alkaline substances that come from outside, the remaining acid or acidulentsubstance neutralizes it, and the principal ingredients of konjac will remain unattacked. The konj ac powder thus treated can be preserved.

The product of this invention may from time to ime be kneaded by adding thereto KATSUNAGA TAlJANAHA. 

